Facebook threats to lawmakers rise after Meta policy change

Violent threats and abusive content targeting U.S. lawmakers on Facebook increased sharply following Meta’s decision to roll back key content moderation policies in January 2025, according to a new report released Tuesday. The research by the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) found that violent threats, including explicit calls for murder, quadrupled, while harassment more than doubled and racist and gendered abuse surged on the platform.

The report analyzed nearly eight million Facebook comments targeting 100 members of the U.S. House of Representatives—the 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats with the largest followings—in the six months before and after the policy changes. Comments violating Meta’s rules on violent threats rose from approximately 1,800 to 7,600. Hate speech comments quadrupled from 6,900 to 30,000, and comments classified as bullying and harassment nearly doubled from 15,700 to 39,900. The analysis also found that threats against President Donald Trump more than doubled, with the report citing one example that stated he “deserves a bullet through his head.”

Meta announced the policy shift in January 2025, framing it as an effort to protect free...